Kitchen cabinet built-in dispenser for rolled sheet material



Jan. 27, 1970 H. B. MURRAY KITCHEN CABINET BUILT- IN DISPENSER FOR ROLLED SHEET MATERIAL Filed Jan. 29. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR H ILTON BMURRAY And,

ATTORNEY KITCHEN CABINET BUILT-IN DISPENSER FOR ROLLED SHEET MATERIAL Filed Jan. 29, 1968 Jan. 27(1970 H. B. MURRAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR HILTON B. MURRAY ATTORNEY United States Patent 7 3,492,056 KITCHEN CABINET BUILT-IN DISPENSER FOR ROLLED SHEET MATERIAL Hilton B. Murray, 1228 E. Philadelphia St., York, Pa. 17403 Filed Jan. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 701,171 Int. Cl. A47f 67/02; B65h 19/00 US. Cl. 312242 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A box-like sheet metal housing having an open bottom and having bracketed within it a roll of paper toweling or like sheet material is mounted on the lower shelf of a conventional kitchen wall cabinet, over an opening cut in the shelf, so that the sheet can be pulled down from the roll and torn therefrom. A narrow sheet metal shelf attachment is vertically adjustably fastened to the front of the housing and bears on the cabinet shelf to assist in holding the housing in place over the opening.

The present invention relates to dispensing means for rolled sheet material, particularly paper towels which are extensively merchandised in continuous web form rolled on a cardboard tube mandrel from which sections of the web may be unwound and torn off as required for use.

The invention provides dispensing means for mounting such a roll within a cabinet, such as a conventional kitchen wall cabinet, and its primary purpose is to enclose the roll in a housing which can be fully enclosed within the cabinet while leaving the free end portion of the rolled web accessible for pulling and tearing off without requiring opening of the cabinet door or any exposure of the roll or of any part of the dispensing means.

A related purpose is to provide the housewife with an alternative to the customary open wall mounting .of the popular bracket devices for holding the paper towel rolls, so that the bracket and roll can now be completely concealed without impairing the accessibility of the towel material.

A further purpose of the invention is to produce a device of the character described which can be manufactured inexpensively from sheet metal, comprising only two parts or components, both being of simple structure and design, adapted to be assembled for use and to have a standard roll towel bracket installed within the assembly by means of a simple screwdriver, and to be mounted in operative position in any conventional wooden or metal kitchen wall cabinet by any do-it-yourself householder who is capable of sawing a hole in the bottom shelf of the cabinet.

A related object of the invention is to provide a roll housing of the foregoing character which can be acceptably mounted over a hole of wide variation in size and shape cut into the cabinet shelf, so that no nicety of fit is required and errors in measurement for the shelf sawing operation are of no consequence.

Other objects are concerned with providing the housewife with a completely concealed paper towel roll, fully hidden from view, entirely accessible at all times regardless of the open or closed condition of the kitchen cabinet containing the roll, mounted securely without requiring the generally troublesome operation of driving screws securely into walls of plaster, tile or similar material.

A particular embodiment of the invention which has been reduced to actual practice in commercial use and been found to be entirely satisfactory, and which is accordingly at present preferred, is shown in the accom- 3,492,056 Patented Jan. 27, 1970 panying drawings in order to illustrate the best mode of practing the invention as required by Section 112 of the Patent Act.

In these drawings,

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the two components of the invention, the housing per se and the shelf structure adjunct, shown separated prior to installation;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the two components shown assembled loosely in the manner in which they become combined in a cabinet, prior to their being adjusted into final permanent relation;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken through the bottom shelf of a kitchen wall cabinet' showing the housing component of the invention installed and the shelf structure tentatively attached thereto but as yet not adjusted into final position; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view, taken .on the line 44 of FIG. 3, showing the two components in finally adjusted permanently installed relation in the cabinet.

In these drawings, FIG. 1 shows the two components of the invention: the housing 10 and the shelf structure 12.

Both are best made of sheet metal stampings, folded to provide the shapes shown. The housing 10 is generally box-like in shape, having a pair of end walls 14, a front wall 16, a rear wall 18, and a top or cover 20, all being rectangular in outline, and all being conveniently assembled by folding and spot welding or in any other suitable manner. By way of example but not limitation it may be stated that in the commercial embodiment of the invention it has been found practical to form the front and two end walls of a single fiat sheet, folded back at the ends of the front wall section to provide the two end walls, and then spot welding to the rear end margins of the end walls the narrowly :flanged ends of a back wall section.

For stiffening the front and back walls, the lower edge margins of these parts of the housing may be folded back on the walls as shown at 22 and 24. The end walls are provided with flanges 26 at their bottom edges which serve to stiffen these walls and which perform another function presently to be described.

The top or cover 20 of the housing is provided by a separate piece of similar sheet metal which has all four of the margins bounding its edges turned up as right angularly upstanding flanges 28 so as to form a sort of shallow tray. To close the top of the housing, the cover flanges 28 are engaged with the upper zones of the four walls of the housing, somewhat below the edges thereof, and the margins of the walls are then reversely bent over the flanges, as shown at 14a, 16a and 18a. The three thicknesses of metal are then spot welded together. Thus the housing is closed at its top with a flat shelf-like surface surrounded by an upstanding perimetric flange which effectively stiifens the top and upper portions of the walls and performs an additional function hereinafter to be described.

The bottom of the housing is left entirely open so that a conventional roll 30' of paper toweling, wound on the usual cardboard tube and being thereby mounted on the customary U-shaped bracket 32, can be installed in the housing by a pair of bolts 34 standing through the elongated bight of the bracket and holes drilled in the top 20 of the housing.

The dimensions of the housing form no part of the invention, but they will of course be selected with proper relation to the size of the roll 30 to be accommodated. By way of example, a housing 13 inches long, 7 /2 inches high, and 6 /2 inches Wide, i.e., deep, is suitable for the so-called jumbo roll of kitchen paper toweling.

The housing member of the two-component combination is installed in a conventional type of kitchen wall cabinet. As is well known, such cabinets are generally made of wood, although sometimes of metal, and consist of plural tiers of superposed shelves arranged in a boxlike structure having its back permanently secured to the room wall and its front closed by a hinged, or sometimes sliding, door. The lowermost shelf is set about 21 inches above a counter or a sink or the drainboard thereof, which itself is at a level about 36 inches above the floor.

The installation contemplated by the present invention is made by cutting, in the lowermost shelf 42 of the cabinet, a hole as shown at 40' in FIGS. 4 and 3, which is rectangular in shape and slightly larger than the plan outline of the housing, and then passing the housing up from beneath the shelf, through the hole, until the end wall flanges 26 engage the undersurface of the shelf in the hole margins. The housing is then secured in place by driving through holes in the flanges, up into the material of the shelf, screws 44, wood screws in the case of the usual wood cabinet, or self-tapping screws if the cabinet sheft be sheet metal.

The installation is then completed by applying to the housing the shelf structure 12.

This shelf structure is essentially a sheet metal device comprising a back wall 50 folded forwardly at its opposite ends to form two end walls 52. For achieving its primary purpose, the structure may consist of no more than these three walls, but it is convenient to provide it with a pair of shelves: a lower shelf 54 and an upper shelf 56. Each of these may be a simple oblong sheet of metal turned up and folded back along its front edge to provide a stiffening rib 58. The upper shelf 56 may be secured in place by downturned flanges 60, 62, which are spot welded respectively to the back and end walls 50, 52, and the lower shelf 54 may be connected to the end walls by spot welding its end margins to the upper surfaces of narrow flanges 64 which are inturned from the lower edges of the end walls 52, as seen at the right hand side of FIG. 3.

The shelf structure 12 is attached to the housing member of the combination by two bolts 70 which stand through round holes 72 in the shelf structure back wall 50 and elongated vertical slots 74 in the housing front wall 16.

FIG. 2 shows the shelf structure attached loosely to the housing member in relatively elevated position, which is the relationship to which it is initially applied immediately after the housing has been fixed in place on the cabinet shelf 42 by the screws 44. The shelf structure is then lowered by dropping the bolts 70 down in the slots 74 until the lower shelf 54 makes firm contact with the cabinet shelf 42. The bolts 70 are then tightened and the installation is complete.

The shelf structure 12 is then performing its primary function in the combination, it materially assists the screws 44 in supporting the housing in position on the cabinet shelf and thus constitutes a safety factor of importance.

The shelf structure also trims the opening 22 that has been cut in the cabinet shelf 42 and makes it immaterial that the width of the opening, i.e., its front to rear dimension, may have been carelessly made too large, or perhaps not straight.

The shelf structure of course also cooperates with the whole combination by providing two shelves 54, 56', for the storing of small containers, such as cans of spices, condiments and the like, or packaged rolls of wrapping foil, plastic, etc. These articles are kept in position on the shelves by the front ribs 58, just as are larger bottles, jars, cans, boxes, etc., including a packaged reserve roll of toweling, on the hOlJsing top wall by the perimetric flanges 28 enclosed within the wall margins 14a, 16a and 18a.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate how the end portion 80 of the towel web wound on the roll 30 hangs down any selected distance below or, if desired, above the level of the cabinet shelf 42. Thus the extending portion of toweling may be hidden from view, as is the roll itself, particularly if the door 82 of the cabinet is made to extend below the shelf 42 in accordance with the usual practice, as shown in FIG. 4, or if the shelf 42 be positioned above the level of the lower edge of the fixed wall of the cabinet front, as in another popular style of cabinet.

It will be recognized that access to the toweling requires no opening of the cabinet door but only reaching back of the cabinet front and up to the roll or the depending portion 80, which is then pulled down and torn off. Thus nothing is touched but the toweling itself, so that there is no handling of cabinet or other parts by towel-seeking hands that are generally wet. Removal of an exhausted roll core or tube and replacement by a new roll are accomplished by springing the sides of the bracket 32 in the usual manner.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is:

1. A kitchen wall cabinet built-in dispenser for rolled sheet material comprising a box-like housing adapted to contain a roll of said material mounted for dispensing unwinding therein and having an open bottom,

means for securing said housing over an opening in the lowermost shelf of a kitchen cabinet so that the free edge portion of the rolled material will hang down below said shelf and material can be pulled from the roll,

a shelf structure disposed across the front wall of the housing,

and means vertically adjustably securing the shelf structure to said front wall with the bottom of the shelf structure engaged with the surface of the cabinet shelf to assist in holding the housing securely in place over the opening in the shelf.

2. A dispenser as claimed in claim 1 in which the housing is made of sheet metal and the bottom edges of the end walls of the housing are formed with outstanding flanges adapted to underlie the cabinet shelf at opposite margins of the opening therein and be secured by fastening means thereto.

3. A dispenser as claimed in claim 1 in which the housing and the shelf structure are made of sheet metal, the bottom edges of the end walls of the housing are formed with outstanding flanges adapted to engage the cabinet shelf at opposite margins of the opening therein and be secured by fastening means thereto,

the shelf structure has a floor and a back wall rising from the rear edge of the floor,

and fastening means standing through hole and slot openings in the housing front wall and the shelf structure back wall secure the shelf structure to the housing with the floor of the shelf structure engaged with the surface of the cabinet shelf in front of the opening therein.

4. A dispenser as claimed in claim 1 in which the housing and the shelf structure are made of sheet metal,

the bottom edges of the end walls of the housing are formed with outstanding perforated flanges adapted to underlie the cabinet shelf at opposite margins of the opening therein,

screws stand through said perforations and into the cabinet shelf to secure the housing to said shelf, the shelf structure has a floor and a back wall rising from the rear edge of the floor,

and fastening means stand through hole and slot openings in the housing front wall and the shelf structure back wall to secure the shelf structure to the housing with the floor of the shelf structure engaged with the surface of the cabinet shelf in front of the opening therein.

5. In combination with a wall cabinet having a lower horizontal shelf provided with a vertical opening therethrough,

a dispenser for rolled sheet material comprising a generally box-like housing having side and end walls and an open bottom,

and means fixing the housing within the cabinet horizontally on the shelf, with the open bottom of the housing overlying and substantially registering with the shelf opening,

said means comprising flanges outstanding from the bottom edges of at least certain of said walls and means fastening said flanges to the margins of the shelf opening,

whereby the free end portion of a roll of sheet material mounted Within the housing will hang down below the shelf and can be pulled from the roll.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner Us. Cl. X.R. 

